Pohlad Family Greed Killed the 2024 Twins

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, thelanges5 said:

 

Twins owner taking time with a fan:

[Doctor Gast]

On 10/5/2024 at 9:36 AM, Major League Ready said:

What if the restriction was not $30M for this year only?  Perhaps my memory is faulty, but my recollection is that the most popular choices for spending were Jordan Montgomery and Rhys Hoskins.  Most people were not interested in the $12-15m type pitchers that actually ended up being very good.

Agreed, IMO the problem wasn't salary it was management. If FO had an extra $30M they would have spent it on the likes of Hoskiins, Montgomery & MAT. The culprits were bad player evaluation, bad philosophies & inability to initiate necessary trades. 

Yet the Pohlads supported the sources of our problems which tells me that the Pohlads are ignorant of the game & they are ignorant because they don't care. If they don't care how do they expect us to care?

[LastOnePicked]

Good article, and I liked the analogy about an under-funded public school. Here's the problem, though: districts in Kansas City and Cleveland received less funding, and their students performed better. That would signal a problem with the way money is spent here.

And I do think they should have spent more (about $170M) this year, absolutely. You invest in Buxton and Correa and you have a not-terrible offseason the year before, you crank that competitive window open and you go for it. Otherwise, Correa and Buxton are just anchors.

I would love it if the Pohlads were fanatics for the team - that'd be wonderful. They're not. So I just wish they'd put emphasis on building a smarter business. Get people back into baseball here. Have better communications, better promotions. Go out and get the best coaching staff and make a lean, feisty team. Gear up for the next competitive window, once you have a few durable stars and a top-tier pitching staff.

[Western SD Fan]

On 10/5/2024 at 5:28 PM, Western SD Fan said:

Again, if you refer to Sportrac for MLB payroll ranks since Target Field has opened (2011 is as far back as they go), you get the following ranks:  Average: 18.43, Mode (common ranks): 17th, 19th, and 23rd, and Median: 19th.  They have consistently operated in this range since the current FO has taken over and does not appear to change anytime soon

Since there have been a few posts that claim that we don't bring stats to our criticisms, let me quote myself in an earlier post on this thread 🙃.  Maybe Sportrac isn't an independent enough resource.  Most of us that have been dedicated fans for years understand that a small/medium market team is going to have good years and rebuilding years, and payroll should reflect that.  As @Fire Dan Gladden commented earlier, perception matters.  Ownership had opportunities to show the fans their commitment to the team by spending some of the Bally contract they received or by making a more meaningful trade at the deadline when it was announced that qualified teams (I am assuming the Twins would have qualified) could receive up to $15 million to jump start the trading deadline.  Ownership did virtually nothing.

I see a lot of comments related to how Tampa Bay, Cleveland, KC, and Baltimore can compete with lower payrolls than the Twins.  Some of us may have forgotten how many years that KC, Detroit, and Baltimore had spent in the wilderness before they finally came out of their respective rebuilds.  

I don't believe any of us who are realistic fans expect us to compete in payroll with the top dogs.  We do expect that they don't hamstring the organization when there is a playoff window open.  If ownership had come out after announcing their one-year deal with Bally and stated that they were going to give Falvey some "flexibility" in payroll to shore up our needs, I'm not sure we are having this much of a conversation, at least I wouldn't. As a small/medium market team, we have to hit on player development, scouting, coaching, and managing and spend when we have the opportunity to go for it.  If not, then organizational changes need to be made or what is the purpose?  Perception matters.

[Khaddie]

When comments are made regarding the Twins, it usually  is if they are good or bad with additional verbiage thrown in.  Comments should include the "whole team" and that includes everyone from the Pohlads on down.  Minnesota loves the Twins and if the Pohlads won't invest in the team and give them what they need to be successful, let them sell them!  An ownership could be made in the model of the Green Bay Packers which is a corporate model of American sports.

[Woof Bronzer]

18 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

This work has been done many times for you to the best of the ability we all have as non-owners.  The truth is, when people do provide you what available evidence there is and it contradicts your narrative you choose to walk away from the conversation and then relight it again in a few days or weeks.  This is your dead horse and always has been.  You don't want objective measures of ownership and spending malfeasance.  You wouldn't accept them if they were provided.

Part of what makes that easy for you is the extent to which major league owners hide their revenues and profits from the public.  They do it to get weasely stadium deals.  To screw over the players in negotiations.  To protect themselves from such horrid ideas as.....*checks notes* not starving their minor leaguers and paying them poverty wages.

You know full well that a full accounting isn't possible and hiding behind that is tiresome.  If owners were losing their hat as much as you imply, sports leagues would have a much more difficult time expanding and finding new owners.  But, strangly.....they don't.  I wonder why.

Must be a sweet gig to build your business off taxpayers and then hide your revenues from those very same taxpayers while you cry poverty and get 20-40% of the fanbase/media to cover for you.

Great post.  It's not worth engaging with this gentleman.  Last week he was condescendingly telling Twins fans they were stupid to complain about the TV debacle because they could have just purchased an 81 game Twins streaming package on MLB.TV.  The guy just isn't educated in the topics he argues, it's just blind fealty to business wizard Joe Pohlad.